@georgehifi
My point was that the newer ESS style converters use massively parallel one bit sigma deltas and is similar to a ladder DAC only with hundreds of smaller 1 bit ladder steps. So the latest ESS chip technology has converged away from high noise DSD style single 1 bit sigma delta conversion (what you dislike) towards a solution which is more akin to an R2R ladder DAC (which you like).
In fact a ladder R2R DAC is NOT a ladder at all - it jumps 1 to 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 etc. which would hardly work to access your roof eavestroughs like a regular 32 foot ladder because if the first step was one foot then the last step would be an impassable 16 feet!!!!
FWIW I agree with you in principle. I don’t like DSD and SACD - I think the technology brings no overall benefit - all it does is provide unsurpassed linearity at the expense of massive amounts of ultra HF noise (all the noise has to be filtered out). Frankly, as a format I think it brings absolutely nothing to the table over PCM. I prefer PCM as a format!! However I do not see the absolute requirement for native conversion of PCM as in fact I do like oversampling - as oversampling really helps linearize DAC non-linearities by randomizing linearity errors much in the same way dithering improves quantization noise.
My point was that the newer ESS style converters use massively parallel one bit sigma deltas and is similar to a ladder DAC only with hundreds of smaller 1 bit ladder steps. So the latest ESS chip technology has converged away from high noise DSD style single 1 bit sigma delta conversion (what you dislike) towards a solution which is more akin to an R2R ladder DAC (which you like).
In fact a ladder R2R DAC is NOT a ladder at all - it jumps 1 to 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 etc. which would hardly work to access your roof eavestroughs like a regular 32 foot ladder because if the first step was one foot then the last step would be an impassable 16 feet!!!!
FWIW I agree with you in principle. I don’t like DSD and SACD - I think the technology brings no overall benefit - all it does is provide unsurpassed linearity at the expense of massive amounts of ultra HF noise (all the noise has to be filtered out). Frankly, as a format I think it brings absolutely nothing to the table over PCM. I prefer PCM as a format!! However I do not see the absolute requirement for native conversion of PCM as in fact I do like oversampling - as oversampling really helps linearize DAC non-linearities by randomizing linearity errors much in the same way dithering improves quantization noise.